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Location: Home  Blogs  What If? 
More Posts by Cxom
Title
What If?
What If?
What If? 09 Aug, 2013
 Cxom (7 comments, 1538 views)  
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What if?

This will be the beginning of a blog series. How successful? Who knows.

Hopefully I can average once a week, if anyone even bothers to care about such a series.

The idea is that, within the post, certain ideas about things that could be added to Trackmania or Maniaplanet will be presented, with the attempt to elicit a response from the community that would parallel such a response as a result of said feature actually being implemented.

In other words, tell me how you would feel if this posts "What if" idea/feature really was added to Trackmania.

With that in mind . . .

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Drawable Block (Example: Canyon GP)
(For this, I'm going to be using the flat GP block series from Canyon as an example)

Wormi asks Enai Siaion and Enai says:
12. If you could add one dream block into stadium, what kind of a block would it be?
A piece of road that could be pulled, twisted and deformed into any track shape you want. Hey you did say dream block. xD


When Canyon was first advertised, however many years ago that was, and something somewhere said that you could make your own blocks, this is kind of what I envisioned. Moreover, it was what I dreamt they meant (which, of course, they didn't).

So, everything has to have limits. How about we start with a 5x5 example for this block. Here's how it would work:

1.) You'd switch to the 'draw' mode.
2.) A 5x5 grid would appear, based off the units in the editor, and you'd draw a line through all the boxes you want your block to go through.
3.) When you let go of the mouse button, a Hermite version of the line you've drawn appears, in canyon GP blocks.

Everything also should probably have multiple perspectives, however, so for a second suggestion, how about the above idea, with no limits other than the size of the editor

And thirdly, a different supposition. What if, after the block were drawn, at different intervals in the resulting block, a bar was placed over the road (from the editor view, kind of like a clip). When you hovered your mouse over it, you could click and maybe mess with some different settings or drag it around.

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As you've likely noticed, this is quite a large idea, but I thought that would be a good place to try to kick off such a blog as this and elicit a strong response from those in the community. As a later thought, I've decided to add a poll and see what people think about this (and future) idea(s) in a more statistical format. Maybe after doing a couple of these, I'll add things up and we'll have a nice standpoint for seeing what the community thinks about the current states of TM topics.

So, take this poll for the addition of any sort or format of drawable block, even if not mentioned here.

And please, do participate if you have or don't have an opinion.
Again, with that in mind, the poll can be found here.

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Current poll results estimate that this addition is seen as 70% favorable, if it were added to TM
Comments
7 comment(s).
 Cxom writes ... 11, Aug, 2013  
I did download 3DS max kata ;)

Not that I got anywhere with it . . .

But MrA you've quite exactly understood what I meant. For the same line drawn, it would indeed be the same block created as a result of the code used. And I do highly appreciate the height inclusion so that banked and curved slopes could be made.

I wonder how it would work if you drew a U in a 4x4 section. It'd probably either not be allowed or make a dead end.
 kata78 writes ... 11, Aug, 2013  
Well ... of course ... there is BLENDER or any other 3D-Program
which makes exactly what you want ...

It's complicated i know ... but you can learn it as i did ....

The IN-Game Editor MUST have limits ... because otherwise
no one would use it ....

So if you are creative ... get the dvd with the blender tutorial for 40
bucks at amazon or anywhere else and learn ...

 MrA writes ... 11, Aug, 2013  
I think it would be a very interesting concept, especially if you give your grid layers so that each side of the track can be raised or lowered to create banked sections or slopes.

The grid might need to be smaller than regular block size, so imagine 4x4 = 1 normal block, so then your 5x5 is really 20x20, but takes the space of 5x5 regular blocks.

As this kind of block is essentially some grid references, with the rules as to how to join the dots controlled by the code (So that the same block is made every time according to the rules), these blocks would be tiny in terms of file size and could be included in the map gbx. Potentially a method of saving them as individual blocks for sharing would be cool so that effectively means you can have 'block libraries' to pick from.
 erikfzr writes ... 09, Aug, 2013  
I'd really love sign objects, like the fence object (F4 mode), but with signs (warning, left, right) to be placed and rotated like the other objects...
IMO it would be useful for dirt roads, for blockmixed tracks, for Arena blocks etc.
 Cxom writes ... 09, Aug, 2013  
I can see your point, and it's long been a topic of discussion in the TM community, often emanating from the blockmixing discussion as well, and well I quite enjoy and marvel at the idea of a dream block, all this was referring to was a drawable block.

For instance, lets return to the 5x5 limit idea (because it's easiest to explain).

In draw mode, you see a 5x5 editor, diagrammed here:

___ __ ___ __ ___
|__|__|__|__|__|
|__|__|__|__|__|
|__|__|__|__|__|
|__|__|__|__|__|
|__|__|__|__|__|

You draw a line with the mouse cursor through the boxes. Once your done, a road block appears following your path.

It does not make it so you an draw any sort of block imaginable, it would just make certain blocks, such as GP and road blocks, more dynamic.
 wormi writes ... 09, Aug, 2013  
I can agree with Tobbe - making too much possible would make supertransitional maps too easy to build and less respectable :]
 FT»Tobbe writes ... 09, Aug, 2013  
I'm not quite sure if I'm pulling in the correct direction as you imagined, I will just try go for it: :p

Let's take the valley editor as a quick example. We now got objects we can place all over the map, and as far as I know it should soon be possible to create your own objects. On the one hand I was already happy about having a little ramp I can place pretty much anywhere I wanted. Even this little ramp opened up so many opportunities for unique transitions and stuff. But on the other side I feared that the editor will loose its challenge by that implementation. And with it probably the motivation for some mappers as well.
If you could design your dream blocks: That would be cool! But if everybody does it? Then somehow I feel like the seeking for new and creative transitions could end. The sense for the outstanding, the mindblowing, the innovative. Up to now we were all trying to make the most out of what the editor gave us. With the dream blocks implemented, there would be almost no limitation.
See, tracks like for egsample Brace Yourself: (The first that came to my mind actually^^)
Such tracks and the incredible constructing work wouldn't be half as amazing if you would just create the block you needed.
Well, if anybody gets my point, I'd be happy about a good english summary.^^

About the Blog idea: I really like it, but I don't have that much hope to see any suggestion from here realized in a future TM. =p

edit: I'd suggest a barrier/lightpole-removing tool that can be used on the custom blocks. :cool:
greez: Tobbe
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